By: Sumay McPhail
Hello everyone! Today I’m going to be talking about India! And specifically about three main things: How India started out, what a civilization is, and what is special about India. India is a fascinating country, and is also becoming more and more developed! Learning about India not only helps us understand our world today, but will also teach you about history and what our world might become in the future! I hope you enjoy!
Early India used to be known as the Indus Valley Civilization. It is hard to know too much about the Indus Valley Civilization since nobody can read their language, but historians were able to figure out a few things. The Indus Valley Civilization was located around the Indus rivers in a valley. Farming was made somewhat easier since the Indus rivers flooded predictably. Early India also started trading a lot earlier than other early civilizations at the time making the Indus Valley Civilization bigger than most other civilizations. The Indus Valley Civilization went through many different periods of different rulers following different religions! This has made it so that India today has many different religions including Hinduism (most commonly), Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, and Jain communities spread all across India!
Now, what is a civilization in the first place? It is hard to know what exactly what a civilization is… but you are considered a civilization if you have these things; If you have a surplus of food, if you have a city, if you have specialization of labor, if you trade, some kind of social stratification, a centralized government, and shared values such as religion or writing. Usually civilizations are built around rivers as well.
What makes India special? India is considered an emerging market, this means that it has some things about it that make it a market, but doesn’t meet all the standards. The emerging part of it means that it is starting to become more and more developed and will probably become a market one day! India has one-sixth of the world's population putting it in second place after China in the most populated country! India may have a higher population than China by 2030! There are many languages spoken in India, the languages are Hindi (about 30% of people), English (commonly used for business), Bengali, Tenagu, Urdu, Marathi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Gujarati, Tamil, Oriya, Sindhi, Sanskrit, and Hindustani. There are also many different religions as well!
Thank you for reading about India! India is one of the most diverse countries with a population of around 1.2 billion people, speaking 13 different languages, and with more than six religions spread all around India. While India is only an emerging market right now, it has huge potential for a booming economy! With benefits from geography, population, and resources...who knows what India could become!